Avoid TMI When Calling in Sick
While Ms. Hamilton’s boss is understanding when she occasionally calls in sick because she’s exhausted, “I do struggle with how I phrase it so that I’m not lying,” she says. “I don’t want to say my mother is sick…if that’s not the case.” Instead, she is brief and straightforward: “I’m not feeling well enough to come in today.”
Many supervisors say they appreciate and respect a simple statement that an employee is too ill to work. Giving too many graphic details, or trying too hard to sound sick with “a very artistic fake cough, or saying, ‘Oh, I have such a headache I can hardly talk,’” can spark suspicions that an employee is lying, says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder, a hiring-consulting firm in Chicago.
I am not very good at not working when I am sick, but I know better than to go into the office if I’m feeling absolutely terrible. The Wall Street Journal looks at “the art of calling in sick,” and says that young workers in particular often try to prove how driven they are by showing up to work when they’re not well, and then are sent home because one highly contagious person can quickly bring down an entire office. Also, I believe it’s becoming more normal to “e-mail in sick” these days, which saves you from having to make convincing sick noises when calling in for a sick day.
Even crazier are employers who “encourage sick people to come to work [by] offering cash or gifts for perfect attendance.” I mean, that’s just terrible!
Here is a note Choire sent me when he heard that I wasn’t feeling so great the other day:
“GO HOME AND DRINK SOME HOT LEMON-WATER OR THE JUICE OF ONE ONION OR WHATEVER WITCH REMEDY YOU LIKE, AS LONG AS IT INVOLVES ONIONS, GARLIC OR GINGER AND LEMONS. AND THEN SLEEP.”
Yes, sir!
I called in sick on Monday because I had a vicious cold and would have been useless, not to mention obnoxious (sneezing, coughing, snotty) and highly contagious. My workplace is very adamant that we should stay home when we’re not well, because one contagious colleague sickens the whole bunch.
This is a massive improvement over my last place of employment, where people would brag about coming to work with walking pneumonia. Did I mention I worked for a public health department?
I’m grateful that my office culture is all about emailing when you’re sick. It means that there’s no way for them to judge if you are able to come in or not beyond you managed to get to your email and tell them you couldn’t make it.
I never get to use any of my sick days because I only seem to get sick when I’m under a super-tight deadline and can’t afford to take a few days off. I’m definitely in favour of sick people staying home, though, since a shitty cold has been travelling around my office for the last two weeks.
@MilesofMountains I am so mad that western medicine has not found a cure for the common cold yet. I also hate that it seems so minor and yet can be so crippling. I always feel like a total wuss calling in and being like “sorry, my nose is runny!” but seriously snot can destroy you.
@MuffyStJohn I actually find that working through them cures my colds faster than when I stay home lying in bed waiting for them to go away. The downside (as MoM alluded to) is potentially infecting your coworkers.
Perfect timing since I’m home sick with something horrible for the second day in a row. Not to mention the second time THIS MONTH. After not getting sick for at least 18 months I seem to have fallen pretty hard this time.
I only ever get really sick on weekends (thanks, body!) but I always get the Weird Al song stuck in my head when I have to call in for any other reason. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErtOBv2ym_4
Sadly, the people you’d most like to stay home when they’re sick (foodservice workers!) are the ones who are least likely to. At my last bakery job there were such ridiculous guilt trips associated with call-ins that I waited three weeks to take care of a sinus infection. At which point zero fucks were given about guilt trips because I could barely stand.
@Sandra Boiteau@facebook Well, and you probably don’t get paid sick days and don’t make enough money to take the time off in that type of workplace too.
@Sandra Boiteau@facebook trufax. The only time I ever even tried to call in sick to a job that didn’t have sick or vacation days was when I worked at a sandwich shop. They just had me come in an hour later, and I about passed out in the drink case. People can’t have been enthused to be served food by my sniffly, sore-throated self.
Oh, I thought this would be about the time that I awkwardly told my boss about my rash because she asked me about my doctor’s appointment and I felt like I had to say something that demonstrated it was necessary. Because avoid TMI in that sense too, it’s just gross.
@mbmargarita I like to use “You don’t want to know,” said with a jokey grimace. I’ve yet to have a boss reply that they do want to know.
@mbmargarita I had this same situation! How do you call in ‘sick’ to work when you have a rash disgustingly oozing down both of your arms, and you can’t come to work because you can’t feasibly put a shirt on? That was an awkward phone call for me.
The girl in the cube across from me has had a hideous, wracking, nonstop cough for the last three days. She seriously has not gone a five minute span without a coughing fit.
Needless to say, my workplace allots only 3 sick days a yera, which I think she’s already used to look after her son. I’ve already used two, and am now resorting to prayer and voodoo in hopes that she’s not contagious and won’t make me use my third with two months left still in the year. Seriously, workplaces – don’t be so stingy with the sick time, b/c it’s just going to result in the whole office getting the crud at the same time.
We study infectious diseases and their transmission in my department. We are fully aware that staying home is an excellent way to prevent the spread of disease, and yet we’re all encouraged to work whenever possible, even when sick. We’re a complicated people.
@mof Similar situation here, I work in a hospital where there are signs posted everywhere like “don’t come in with xyz symptoms!” and yet.
Man, I had to call in sick once BECAUSE I COULD NOT TALK AND WORKED AT A CALL CENTRE, and even though the supervisor could tell I could not talk on the phone, I still had to go to the dr and pay money for a dr’s note. Oh, and I didn’t get paid sick days either.
I agree that less is more here. My employees always tell me their complete medical history stretching ~30 years back (in horrifying and unappetizing detail) whenever they call in sick… It’s hard to stay tuned in and sounding supportive when all that’s going through your head is “TMI” and “TLDR,” but you can’t just cut them off and hang up mid-sentence either… ;-)
@Nick Agreed. I used to have one employee that would always tell me about her gastro-intestinal issues when I never once questioned her taking the occasional sick day. Really, just a “I’m not well enough to work today” is all I want.
@Worker Parasite I once had a job I really didn’t like AND it’s one of the few jobs I’ve had where I had paid sick time…I called in alot and started getting more elaborate with my excuses and actually said once “It’s coming out both ends”! (I think this was on a voice mail.) It was not coming out at all, I just didn’t want to go in.
I use about one sick day per year, and I always go the route of the “I am not feeling well, and so I will not be in the office today” email to relevant staff/bosses. Whenever I get back, people always ask me what I had, which I think is so weird.
@charmcity That is always so weird to me, why people need to know. I do the same email as you about twice a year because I have a disgestive issue that flares up unexpectedly but no one needs to know that. And when I get back to work, my boss always ask if I feeling better, and I nod, then he nods, then life goes on.
I’ve been working fulltime for nearly three years. Text or email is how we roll when calling in sick (and at my current job, I can just work from home).